‘I’m ME, Not MEAT,’ Proclaims Lobster on New PETA Billboard

Ahead of the Boston Seafood Festival, Eye-Catching Ad Urges People to See All Animals as Individuals and Go Vegan

For Immediate Release:
July 25, 2019

Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382

In advance of the Boston Seafood Festival, PETA has placed a billboard in the area featuring a lobster declaring, “I’m ME, Not MEAT. See the Individual. Go Vegan.”

“Just like humans, lobsters can feel pain and fear, have unique personalities, and value their own lives,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA’s billboard encourages people to spare these animals the agony of being boiled alive simply by choosing vegan meals.”

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—notes that lobsters are intelligent individuals who explore their surroundings, can remember other individual lobsters, and use complex signals to establish social relationships. If left alone, they can live to be more than 100 years old. A PETA investigation of a crustacean slaughterhouse revealed that live lobsters were impaled, torn apart, and decapitated—even as their legs continued to move. Chefs typically place live lobsters into pots of boiling water while they’re still conscious—a cruel practice that has recently been banned in Switzerland.

PETA—which opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview—offers a free vegan starter kit (available here) full of recipes, tips, and more. For more information, please visit PETA.org.

The billboard is located at 39 Stillman St. (near the intersection with Cross Street), just under 2 miles from where the Boston Seafood Festival will take place.